Does Your Hair Need Protein Or Moisture Conditioning?

2016-01-17by Josh Rosebrook

Damaged hair can be caused by a number of reasons from poor hair care or diet, over or improper use of brushing or heated styling instruments, chemical processing, sun over exposure or hair accessories. With these many different ways hair can become damaged, there are two common damaged conditions that can be helped temporarily if applied regularly and with the correct type of treatment: Dry, Brittle, Rough damage or Weak, Mushy damage.

There’s a misconception that protein helps all damaged hair that needs conditioning or luster. But really, there are different damaged conditions that require other applications, and using protein on dry, brittle damage can make matters worse, causing stiff, rough hair that breaks faster.

Understanding what damaged condition your hair is in, you can determine which kind of treatment suits your hair.

(Your hair texture, thickness and porosity also play a part, but I want to keep this instruction as simple as possible because the chemistry can get confusing and overwhelming.)

Hair that is ultra fine, or chemically damaged to the point of having a mushy, cotton candy-like feel, needs protein.

Hair textures, thickness and conditions that respond well to protein in shampoos and conditioners are fine and weak to mushy damaged - which can include straight, wavy, curly and coily textures with any density. The right hydrolyzed protein will help temporarily strengthen, fine, mushy, weak hair through reconstruction. It will not repair the hair permanently, nor can the hair heal in any way.

All hair Protein conditioning treatments and hydrating, moisture hair conditioning treatments must be applied regularly to continually experience the benefits, as they gradually rinse off. Depending on the molecular weight and the shampoo used, some hydrolyzed proteins can hang out longer in hair, create a film over the hair strand and not rinse off as quickly. This causes slight build up on the hair and can cause breakage before it's rinsed off.

Many shampoos and conditioners contain hydrolyzed protein. Hydrolyzed protein is protein broken down into its component amino acids to make it water soluble in the formula and able to penetrate the hair strand.

NOT SURE WHAT KIND OF DAMAGE YOU HAVE?

The elasticity test-

How your hair reacts to being stretched will help determine if you need protein or moisture treatment.

Take an inch of your hair and stretch it, if it doesn’t stretch or breaks, feels dry and rough, it is brittle/damaged and needs moisture treatment.

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